www.aquamarinayachts.com

aquamarina · #1 (**permalink**) 10-21-2003, 11:39 AM

I'd be interested on feedback on my company's website .... at www.aquamarinayachts.com

I'm a yacht charter broker and so a bit of a newbie when it comes to making a site as efficient as possible. So, though I have my own very clear ideas on design (clean looking, but still pretty, and fast to download so no clunky flash intros) I'd be interested to hear of any technical improvements I could make.

Thanks!

Karen Harvey-Kucuk

LiviLou · #2 (**permalink**) 10-21-2003, 01:00 PM

I liked it. The way the pics did on the opening page was sharp. It had good speed, so that wasn't a problem.

tjdesigns · #3 (**permalink**) 10-21-2003, 01:13 PM

Hi, i like what you have done with the pictures, using flash, however, instead of having it repeat you should have them appear in turn as they do, then for all three of them to appear, and stay on the screen, repetition can be very annoying, repetition can be very annoying. The colours need rethinking, I know where you are trying to go but at present they are very depressing. You can have a nautical colour scheme without making you visitor want to cry (perhaps an exageration). Maybe a slightly deeper blue, with a few portholes containing ocean scenes, done correctly this would look good and not add any load time, just something for you to consider.

Hope this helps.

Regards
Thom of TJDesigns.org

apisdesign · #4 (**permalink**) 10-21-2003, 01:28 PM

Kudos to you on your early endeavours into the world of web design.

I'd like to share, if I may, a few ideas for improving your design:

1. Create a bit more contrast on your buttons. White on light blue is a bit difficult to read.

2. Stop your animation. Animation can be groovy and inspiring and lovely, but always stop it after a while - it can be very distracting when a user is attempting to read your content.

3. Have a tag line. Upon first visiting your site, I had to hunt around to find out what it was all about. I suggest putting a short, punchy statement directly beneath your logo - something like "Charter Vacations in the Eastern Mediterranean".

4. Don't use 2 sans serif fonts. You have used what appears to be Arial and some other sans serif font in the content of your page. Stick to one and simply vary the weight, size, colour and italics to create headings. I suggest you stick with Arial.

5. Link to other sites. In order to improve your search engine rankings, your site needs to be relevant. Placing links to other relevant sites will help with this, and potentially add value to your site.

Other than that, you appear to have adhered to a lot of the unwritten rules of web design. Your navigation is in a standard location, your logo is front and centre, and your links seemed organized and meaningful.

Good luck!

rocky1 · #5 (**permalink**) 10-22-2003, 02:31 PM

Would concur with Robin's comments above and add that the site is pretty slow loading on dial-up, I'm connected at 49.2k and I was almost a full minute loading the page. Not sure if it's the animation itslef slowing things down, or if the file sizes on the pictures are a bit large.

I'd also work on the page layout a little. With the limited information you have on the homepage, there should be no reason too have to scroll down for it all.

Rocky